The nucleotide sequence of a 9444-bp segment around the 78 degrees region of the Bacillus subtilis (Bs) chromosome has been. determined. Nine putative orfs were identified. The deduced amino acid sequences of the products of two of them (yfiJ and yfiK) exhibit high similarity to those of a sensor protein, DegS, and a transcriptional regulatory protein, DegU, of Bs, respectively. Three of them (yfiL, yfiM and yfiN) seem to be ABC transporter genes. One olf(designated as lipB), the closest to the sspE among the nine orfs, is the second lipase gene in Bs.